The Source of Man's Inner Life Part 3

Scripture records God’s creative acts in Genesis 1. Verses 1-3 of chapter 2 summarize the preceding chapter. Man is the last and highest of God’s creative acts. God created the heavens and the earth, plant life, and animal life; then, He created man and gave him dominion over His creation. Chronological order occurs in chapter 1. Chapter 2 makes no claim to order. Man precedes all things; therefore, he was given dominion over them. Chapter 1 reveals Elohim, the abstract God of nature. In chapter 2, He is entitled Jehovah Elohim (LORD God), revealing the more intimate side of the Divine Being (2:4). Chapter 1 portrays the Creator in power. Chapter 2 makes the Creator known as Preserver, Protector, and Benefactor. Consequently, chapter 2 does not contradict chapter 1; it is an expansion.

God formed man out of the dust of the earth (Gen. 2:7). God, the Potter, formed man from the clay (Jer. 18; Rom. 9:20, 21). God “... breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being [soul]” (Gen. 2:7 NASB UPDATE). The soul is “in” the body of man. Man’s body was first formed of the dust of the earth. Then God breathed into it, and man became a living soul. The soul does not come from the body. It was not generated with the body, but it was subsequently inbreathed by God. That does not imply that man’s soul is a part of God. The only correct way to describe man is that man “is” a soul and he “has” a body.

Man’s soul never ceases to exist. The word immortal should not be used to describe man’s soul. It refers to his body. Man’s soul is not eternal. It was created by God; therefore, it had a beginning. However, the created soul has everlasting existence. The words eternal and everlasting are distinct. Eternal signifies without beginning and ending; whereas, everlasting means that it can have a beginning but has no ending.

Some foolishly deny the never-ceasing existence of the soul. Such fools should be answered according to their folly (Prov. 26:5). There is no contradiction between Proverbs 26:4 and Proverbs 26:5—“Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will also be like him.” “Answer a fool as his folly deserves, that he not be wise in his own eyes” (NASB UPDATE). Illustrations from the word of God can be given to show that interrogators were not always answered. Jeremiah did not answer Hananiah (Jer. 28:11). During His public ministry, the Lord Jesus refused to answer many of His adversaries. A fool should not be answered in a manner agreeing unto his folly. A Biblical answer to Proverbs 26:4 is illustrated by Job. In the midst of his suffering, his wife asked why he did not curse God and die (Job 2:9). Job answered, “…You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10 NASB UPDATE). Proverbs 26:5 is illustrated by Charles Spurgeon’s reply to some young men who asked if he did not know that the devil is dead. Mr. Spurgeon replied, “Oh, you poor, fatherless children.” He answered the fools according to their folly.

The following is an illustration of a minister answering a medical doctor according to his folly. The doctor denied that man’s soul is never ceasing, and the minister affirmed that it is everlasting. The doctor used man’s five senses to illustrate his point. He asked the minister if he had ever seen, tasted, heard, smelled, or felt a soul. To each of the first four, the minister replied, “No!” To the fifth he answered, “Yes! I have felt a soul.” The doctor concluded by seeking to show that four out of five senses disproved the existence of the soul. The minister in turn asked the doctor if he had ever seen, tasted, heard, smelled, or felt pain. The doctor necessarily replied in the same manner that the minister had to his questions. The minister reminded him that four of his five senses deny the existence of pain. The doctor walked away disgusted.

Man’s soul is the direct reflection of God. His body is the reflection of that reflection. The soul presents the Divine image immediately. The body presents the Divine image mediately. The soul is a pure, spiritual substance which will not admit division. To say the soul is propagated would seem to imply that the soul of a child separates itself in some way from the soul of its parent. That would necessitate this question: Does the soul come from father, mother, or both? According to Genesis 2:7, the soul comes directly from God.

Man’s soul and body are not only distinguishable but separable. The Lord said, “…For you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19 NASB UPDATE). The distinguishability and separability of body and soul are affirmed by Ecclesiastes 12:7— “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it” (NASB UPDATE). Man can exist apart from his body. When a Christian dies, he goes immediately to be with the Lord; but his body returns to the dust of the earth. On the contrary, man’s soul and spirit are distinguishable but not separable.

Formed of the dust, man was suitably named Adam, which means earth. Flesh is earth indeed, but that piece of earth is of greater value than mere earth. The excelling power of the Creator over His creature is seen in His creation of man. A potter may form attractive vessels with his hands, but man is more important than vessels. Thus, Creator and creature are differentiated. A sculptor may form an attractive figure from stone, wood, or wax; however, he cannot change the nature of the matter. When God made man’s body of the dust of the earth, it became more valuable than it was as dust. Man’s body is so wonderfully made that David bowed in humble submission to God as he considered it (Ps. 139).

Dust is emblematic of humiliation and mortality: “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5, 6 NASB UPDATE). Bodily, man is nothing more than a little dust and a puff of wind with no solidarity in either. When his last breath is drawn, his body will return to dust. Man’s life is like a vapor that appears for a time and soon vanishes away (James 4:14). Like a flower, it soon fades away: “Man, who is born of woman, is short-lived and full of turmoil. Like a flower he comes forth and withers. He also flees like a shadow and does not remain (Job 14:1, 2 NASB UPDATE). I Peter 1:24 states that “ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS, AND ALL ITS GLORY LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERS, AND THE FLOWER FALLS OFF” (NASB UPDATE). True self-abhorrence comes not from self-examination but from looking from self to behold the sovereign God. Man does not begin self-examination with himself and work up to God. He must begin with God and come down to himself. The Divine order of the five Biblical sciences—theology, anthropology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology—emphasizes that God must receive preeminence. Job, afflicted with many trials, received comfort only when he had a glimpse of the Holy One of Israel. Then, he saw himself as he really was—“For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer” (Psalm 103:14-16 NASB UPDATE).

There are two kinds of error with regard to the body: (1) concern for bodily health to the neglect of the soul and (2) no concern for either the health of the body or the soul. Man’s physical health is more precious in the eyes of God when it is less precious in his own eyes. Bodily care is necessary, but soul care is more necessary. A believer’s body is not his possession. It is the temple of the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 6:19, 20). Bodily need, not bodily desire, should be provided. The apostle Paul refused to yield his body for things that would harm it or discredit him as a Christian (I Cor. 9:26, 27). The body must not be deliberately injured or defiled but possessed in sanctification and honor (I Thess. 4:3, 4).

The Christian’s body is a purchased possession. He is sealed with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13, 14). Since his body has been sealed, it will be protected until it finishes its race in time. A believer has supernatural love, the love that has been poured out within his heart by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). That love takes precedence over his natural affections. He does have natural affection or love for his body for the service it renders to his own soul and the souls of others.

Willingness to die does not indicate that one’s concern for his body is extinguished, but his love for the Lord Jesus Christ overpowers his concern for his body. Every Christian has a twofold love: supernatural love for the Lord Jesus Christ and natural love for his body. The martyrs for the cause of Christ were willing to become martyrs because their supernatural love for Christ overpowered their natural concern for their physical welfare. The three Hebrew children willingly submitted to the fiery furnace (Dan. 3:16-18). The apostle Paul said, “But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself...” (Acts 20:24 NASB UPDATE). He was “...hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake” (Phil. 1:23, 24 NASB UPDATE).

Saved and unsaved persons vastly differ in their appreciation for their bodies. The unregenerate love their bodies for natural causes. They desire pleasure. Their philosophy is to eat, drink, and be merry because they might die tomorrow. They prefer their bodies before their souls. Regenerated persons prefer their souls before their bodies, desiring to please the Lord.

God has put the “everlasting duration of time” in the heart of every man: “He has made everything appropriate [beautiful] in its time. He has also set eternity [everlasting duration of time] in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end” (Eccl. 3:11 NASB UPDATE). In this verse, the NASB translation “eternity” is not correct, and to carry that to its logical conclusion would lead to the unscriptural belief of the preexistent theory of the soul. The KJB has translated the Hebrew word as “world.” The more correct translation would be “everlasting duration of time.” The simple interpretation is that God places an everlasting soul in the heart of every man.

Natural man, man apart from Jesus Christ, cannot be satisfied. The book of Ecclesiastes, written from the standpoint of man under the sun, proves that he cannot be satisfied even if he could possess the whole world. Since the world (the everlasting duration of time) has been set in his heart, nothing in the world can satisfy him because his heart is too big for the object. The book of the Song of Solomon, written from the standpoint of man in the Son, proves that the Christian can be satisfied because his heart is too small for the Object. The Lord Jesus Christ satisfies believers. Man with one foot in the temporal and the other in the eternal is torn between two worlds—the world that now is and the world, or age, that is to come. Life with unsatisfied cravings will sink unregenerate man to the level of beasts (Rom. 1:18-32).

Man’s soul is not so linked to his body that it cannot separately act or exist. The eternal Son of God existed before a body was prepared for Him. He assumed human nature. That human nature died and was placed in the tomb. He had power to raise that body, and many other bodies of saints were raised by Him (Matt. 27:52). That illustrates how the soul can exist and act separately from the body.

The Bible does not teach soul sleep. When a Christian dies, he goes immediately to be with the Lord. That is the reason that absence from the body is presence with the Lord for the child of God (II Cor. 5:1-8). To see dust and spirit clasp each other is a mystery. That union comes in with the breath of life; and as soon as that breath departs, the union also departs. The depraved nature comes in at the time of the uniting of soul with body and departs at the time of death. The elect of God groan under a threefold burden of sin: (1) guilt, (2) filth, and (3) inheritance of a sinful nature. Guilt is remedied by justification. Filth is healed by sanctification. Inheritance of the sinful nature is eradicated in glorification. Although the soul leaves all the means of grace behind at death, it carries the habits of grace that were implanted and improved while here. “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on! Yes, says the Spirit, so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them” (Rev. 14:13 NASB UPDATE).